THEIR ANTIWAR CRIES ARE NO LONGER IN THE WILDERNESS

Their ideas made them folk heroes to the American left.

But like slightly eccentric relatives at a family reunion, Reps. Lee, Woolsey and Waters were rarely invited to sit at the head table in Washington.

Until now.

The three California Democrats -- who have been waging a passionate, four-year campaign to end the war in Iraq -- find themselves in the mainstream as Congress begins debate today on a crucial war spending bill. And the group they lead, the more than 80-member Out of Iraq Caucus, controls the fate of the most important war vote since the 2003 invasion.

Reporters seek out the three liberal lawmakers, recording their daily proclamations. Waters, the fiery chairwoman of the caucus, is a frequent guest on national news programs.

And as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) labors to find the votes to pass the bill, she is seeking them out. Last week, she invited the three to her office to try to persuade them to support the measure, which would require the withdrawal of American combat forces from Iraq by no later than August 2008.

"They have really become the conscience of the caucus," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman who heads the national Win Without War coalition.

Andrews credits the three with forcing Pelosi to insist on a timeline for withdrawal.

Lee, Woolsey and Waters have reservations about Pelosi's bill. They are demanding the withdrawal of combat troops by the end of this year.

"We have no other choice but to act boldly," Woolsey said recently after defiant members of the Out of Iraq Caucus left a closed-door party meeting to talk to the media.

"It's time Congress caught up to the people we represent, people who recognized long ago that the Bush Iraq policy is a train wreck," Woolsey said.

Her district north of San Francisco was the site of an Iraq war protest featuring naked women spelling "peace" with their bodies.

Nude peaceniks and other early war opponents now have a lot more company.

A recent Bloomberg poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times found that 55% of those surveyed supported a withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by March 31, 2008 -- compared with 39% who opposed such a timetable.